Health News

Varicella Vaccine Has Long-Lasting Effectiveness Against Chickenpox

Date: Apr-02-2013
Chickenpox, the childhood infection of earlier generations, has been most recently neutralized by the varicella vaccine - a vaccine that has shown long-term effectiveness against the illness, according to a new study by the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center. The study findings, published in the journal Pediatrics, were based on a 14-year study consisting of 7,585 children ranging in age from 12 to 23 months. The researchers aimed to examine the long-term effectiveness of the vaccine and its influence on the epidemiology of varicella (chickenpox) and herpes zoster (shingles)...

FDA: No Warning Needed For Nicotine Gum, Patches

Date: Apr-02-2013
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that no warning is needed for products designed to help people quit smoking, such as nicotine gum, patches, or lozenges. Manufacturers of these products are advised to modify or remove safety warnings that were previously demanded. The FDA believes that taking away the warnings will help more people try to quit this life-threatening habit, instead of scaring them off...

Most Young Adolescents Are Not Sexually Active

Date: Apr-02-2013
Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of young American adolescents are not sexually active, researchers from the Guttmacher Institute reported in the journal Pediatrics. The authors explained that things change when adolescents reach the ages of 16 to 18. Lawrence B Finer and Jesse M Philbin gathered and examined newly available public data on sexual initiation, contraceptive use and pregnancy among American adolescents from the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth, issued by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics...

Just What Are Protective Prions?

Date: Apr-02-2013
Most commonly associated with such maladies as "mad cow disease" and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, prions are increasingly recognized for their ability to induce potentially beneficial traits in a variety of organisms, yeast chief among them. Now a team of scientists has added markedly to the job description of prions as agents of change, identifying a prion capable of triggering a transition in yeast from its conventional single-celled form to a cooperative, multicellular structure...

Recent Evidence Suggests Declaring A Truce With Our Microbiological 'Frienemies'

Date: Apr-02-2013
Managing bacteria and other microorganisms in the body, rather than just fighting them, may be lead to better health and a stronger immune system, according to a Penn State biologist. Researchers have historically focused on microbes in the body as primarily pathogens that must be fought, said Eric Harvill, professor of microbiology and infectious disease. However, he said that recent evidence of the complex interaction of the body with microbes suggests a new interpretation of the relationship...

Most Physicians Happy In Their Relationships

Date: Apr-02-2013
It appears that the majority of spouses/partners of physicians in the United States are happy with their relationships, according to Mayo Clinic research. Of the about 900 spouses/partners of physicians who responded to a national survey, 85 percent said that they were satisfied in their relationship and 80 percent said they would choose a physician spouse/partner again if they could revisit their choice. These values are similar to those of married adults in the U.S. overall. The study appears in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Consistent with the changing demographic characteristics of U.S...

Coal-Tar-Sealing Of Pavements May Increase Risk Of Cancer

Date: Apr-02-2013
People living near asphalt pavement sealed with coal tar have an elevated risk of cancer, according to a study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. Much of this calculated excess risk results from exposures in children, age six or younger, to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the sealant. "The increased cancer risk associated with coal-tar-sealed asphalt (CSA) likely affects a large number of people in the U.S...

42 Percent Of Antidepressant Response Explained By Common Gene Variants

Date: Apr-02-2013
Antidepressants are commonly prescribed for the treatment of depression, but many individuals do not experience symptom relief from treatment. The National Institute of Mental Health's STAR*D study, the largest and longest study ever conducted to evaluate depression treatment, found that only approximately one-third of patients responded within their initial medication trial and approximately one-third of patients did not have an adequate clinical response after being treated with several different medications...

Common Fruit Fly Key To Discovering How Memories Are Written Into Brain Cells

Date: Apr-02-2013
Scientists have identified a key molecule responsible for triggering the chemical processes in our brain linked to our formation of memories. The findings, published in the journal Frontiers in Neural Circuits, reveal a new target for therapeutic interventions to reverse the devastating effects of memory loss. The BBSRC-funded research, led by scientists at the University of Bristol, aimed to better understand the mechanisms that enable us to form memories by studying the molecular changes in the hippocampus - the part of the brain involved in learning...

How Society Deals With Criminal Justice And Offenders In The Future May Involve Brain Scans

Date: Apr-02-2013
A new study conducted by The Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, N.M., shows that neuroimaging data can predict the likelihood of whether a criminal will reoffend following release from prison. The paper, which is to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, studied impulsive and antisocial behavior and centered on the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain that deals with regulating behavior and impulsivity...